This invention relates to a prefabricated wall structure capable of being transported to a construction site and readily installed and, more specifically, to a prefabricated wall section in which the load-bearing studs are composed of steel of about 20 gauge thickness. These studs are secured vertically between a metal cap member and a floor track member which form the top and bottom of the wall section respectively.
Prefabricated load-bearing wall sections presently used in building construction are made either entirely of wood or of metal load-bearing studs having a thickness of 16 gauge or thicker. These prefabricated metal wall sections suffer from the disadvantages of being heavy, unwieldy, and relatively unworkable with the hand tools usually found at a construction site. In addition, wood wall sections, though workable, are usually not uniform in size since variations in humidity affect the dimensions of wooden members. For this reason, a straight wooden wall section is difficult to produce economically. The use of kilndried wood runs up the cost. And green or partially dried wood is subject to warping and dimensional changes. Further, green wood shrinks causing nail-pop in dry-wall surfaces. These disadvantages were previously accepted as unavoidable in order to obtain the required load-bearing characteristics for the entire wall section.